Installation of WoW Classic?

[BenBos]

Hi.

I have a question about the installation of WoW Classic.

Do you need to install WoW completely to play WoW Classic ?

The reason why I asked: My space on the SSD disk is limited, so will I be able to install WoW classic alone or will I need to install ALL files for all WoW to access it.

And second question: Approx how many Gigabyte does the installation(s) need?

To my knowledge this was not adressed in the Q&A above.

I think this information can be useful for those players with limited hard disk/SSD space available.

Thanks for a techincal answer in advance.

[Herris]

Classic is basically like the PTR - completely independent of any other install. It is just a new selection in Region/Account.

The download size was about 4GB I think, I can't be sure as it is in the same folder as my normal install.

[BenBos]

Classic is basically like the PTR - completely independent of any other install. It is just a new selection in Region/Account.

The download size was about 4GB I think, I can't be sure as it is in the same folder as my normal install.

That would be great news. So I could install it seperately from WoW.

Of course eventually I will be adding a new Surface Book with at least 500GByte SSD but in the meantime it would help me out for the current year and launching period.

Thanks.

[Hottage]

They've massively optimized the file structure and all versions (Live, Classic, PTR, Beta and Tournament) will share content where possible.
If you only install Classic they also reduced the download to only content required for that version, so you aren't stuck with 50GB+ of Live data.

[GrinnersGrin]

Just do what I did and delete BFA files on your SSD and replace with the Beta files

[Maudib]

Just do what I did and delete BFA files on your SSD and replace with the Beta files

Can't do that... since I never bought BfA... :P I can do that with Legion though... :P

Classic really is all that needs reside on my drives.

[bloomy]

i have wow on my trash drive since it takes like 70 gigs but i plan on putting classic on my ssd, anyone else do this and can tell me what size it was when they are completely separate? only thing i've seen or heard is around 4 gigs currently but that sounds too low.

[Trend]

They've massively optimized the file structure and all versions (Live, Classic, PTR, Beta and Tournament) will share content where possible.
If you only install Classic they also reduced the download to only content required for that version, so you aren't stuck with 50GB+ of Live data.

I'm pretty sure nothing is shared but the launcher. All the assets are completely different - even when they're the "same" they are still different resolutions.

People seem to forget it was not a 50GB install in 2004. That would not have been possible. Average people (even gamers) still had dial-up connections and there was no way to distribute that many GB. The game got larger as internet connections allowed it to get larger - so more models, zones, textures, etc and everything with higher resolutions.

Anyone who is worried about the size of Classic shouldn't.

[Animalhouse]

Classic will be 7gb or less.

[Hottage]

I'm pretty sure nothing is shared but the launcher. All the assets are completely different - even when they're the "same" they are still different resolutions.

People seem to forget it was not a 50GB install in 2004. That would not have been possible. Average people (even gamers) still had dial-up connections and there was no way to distribute that many GB. The game got larger as internet connections allowed it to get larger - so more models, zones, textures, etc and everything with higher resolutions.

Anyone who is worried about the size of Classic shouldn't.

If you look into the World of Warcraft install directory it's now laid out like so:

_beta_
_classic_
_ptr_
_retail_
Data

The vast majority of data is stored in the Data folder (which is what used to be in the _retail_/Data folder), and shared between the various installed versions.
Each sub-version then contains it's own delta based data files which allow it to alter only the data elements which are different from the base game.

If you don't have _retail_ installed, Data only contains as much _retail_ data as required to allow your installed versions to work.

[Twoddle]

According to this thread I can install WoW Classic only and save 50Gb of space on my SSD but I don't see any option or website where I can download classic only. Do I really have to install the whole of current WoW which requires over 70Gb just to play Classic?

*
I found it, Ragnaros was sitting on top of the version selector.